The Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics

One of the things the three children for whom I nannied loved the most was to play outside. They didn't care how cold it was. The heat didn't bother them. They wanted to be outside every single day. They would have gone out in the rain had I allowed it!


One of the twins is a train and truck man. The other twin loves planes. Whenever we hear a sound that could even remotely be the sound of a helicopter rotor or a jet engine, we all look up! "Airplane, Mary!" Then we all look up in the sky to see if we can be the first to spot the plane or helicopter. "Do you see it?" one of them will inevitably ask. Whoever is the first to see it, calls out and points, "There it is!"

Did you think a lesson on flight was coming? You're right!

What is aerodynamics? The word comes from two Greek words: aerios, concerning the air, and dynamis, which means force. Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air. Judging from the story of Daedalus and Icarus, humans have been interested in aerodynamics and flying for thousands of years, although flying in a heavier-than-air machine has been possible only in the last hundred years. Aerodynamics affects the motion of a large airliner, a model rocket, a beach ball thrown near the shore, or a kite flying high overhead. The curveball thrown by big league baseball pitchers gets its curve from earodynamics. (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bga.html)

I had the idea for this post the other day as I sat on my deck. In the sky a hawk appeared to just hang in the air as if in suspended animation. There was a slight wind, a bit brisker than a breeze. At first I thought it was an optical illusion - that he just appeared to be suspended, stationary in the sky. Then I realized he was indeed "just hanging out" in the sky, wings extended, head out.
What a vista he must have had.


I'm sure he could see our entire neighborhood and beyond. I don't know if he was just tired and had stopped to take advantage of the aerodynamic event of the wind blowing in two different directions, thus allowing him to stay where he was, or if he just paused to enjoy the beauty of God's creation from a vantage point nearer to God than if he had been earthbound.

I am afraid of heights and I don't particularly enjoy flying in a plane. But I do enjoy craning my neck and looking up to the sky any time I see or hear a plane. I very much enjoy watching the birds fly and coast and soar through the sky. I marvel at the world God has created, just as the boys are learning to be aware of and appreciate God's world.

God's world expands beyond the earthbound vantage point from which we view our lives. Every time I look up, I think of God "up there" in heaven. I think of the world beyond myself and beyond the box of the space I occupy on the earth. I think of heaven and the promise that I will be there one day.

The boys have taught me how to make it through every single day: LOOK UP!


"God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day" (Genesis 1:8 NIV).



"These are the visions I saw while lying in my bed: I looked, and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky; it was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, and on it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter, and the birds of the air lived in its branches; from it every creature was fed" Daniel 4:10-12 NIV).